Kejriwal’s AAP on warpath, blockades BJP leader’s house
04 Feb 2014
A day after Arvind Kejriwal's Delhi government passed a draft bill for a corruption watchdog without bothering to seek central approval, his Aam Admi Party today staged a protest outside the residence of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley.
Kejriwal and his AAP – increasingly seen as a paranoid-schizophrenic party with no clear agenda except to bring down the established order – had on Monday alleged that Gujarat's chief minister Narendra Modi and Jaitley were using underhand means to topple the Delhi government. Following this, party workers today surrounded the south Delhi residence of Jaitley, a former law minister.
Activists of the BJP soon launched a counter-protest at the same spot, alleging that the AAP was just protesting with an eye on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
As both parties protested at the same place, there were heated arguments between their workers. The police, prepared for the situation, had to divide the two warring parties by putting barricades.
On Monday, AAP legislator Madan Lal alleged that a person close to Modi had offered him Rs20 crore to split the party, and promised to make him chief minister of Delhi if his party came to power.
"Two persons met me around 10-12 day ago. One of them told me that his name is Sanjoy Singh and he has come from Gujarat. He said he is close to Narendra Modi. Singh told me that Modiji wanted me to get the support of around 10 (AAP) MLAs," Lal had said, without producing any evidence to substantiate the allegations.
The Kasturba Nagar MLA alleged that the person told him that if he succeeded in getting 10 MLAs to leave AAP, he would be made the CM and his cabinet ministers would be paid Rs10 crore each.
Lal had also claimed that on the midnight of 7 December, an unidentified person had telephoned him saying a prominent leader wanted to talk to him. "When I asked him who wanted to talk to me, he said Arun Jaitley. After hearing Jaitley's name, I cut the phone. I could not make a call back on the unknown number," he claimed.